Chapter 4
Skye and Mack stood frozen for a long moment.
Skye stared at the young man and realized that the cameras did not show how young he was.
It was obvious that he was a kid, a teenager, with short brown hair, large amber eyes and moles scattered across his face. He was pale and visibly shaking, even from a few feet a away, trying to lean away from the claws that were digging into his throat.
"Peter, please!" The young man gasped, breaking the silence, his hands coming up to grab at the Inhuman's hand, his feet scrabbling briefly against the carpet as he attempted to buck the man off his chest. "Stop, please!"
"Shut up, Stiles!" The man growled his claws digging in to the boys throat hard enough to draw a few drops of blood. Stiles went completely still. “This is all your fault. You out me to everyone and now the police have come sniffing...You know what has to happen now.”
“No, Peter please, no!” Stiles squirmed and bucked trying to get out from underneath Peter only to curl into a ball wheezing when Peter stood up and kicked him in the ribs.
Skye tried to bring her gun up and shoot him the moment he was on his feet but everything seemed to have slowed down and she couldn't bring her gun up in time before he was in front of her, his claws inches away from her face. She pulled the trigger right as someone slammed into her, shoving her backwards.
Then she was on the floor, staring up at the Inhuman who's claws were dripping crimson onto the stained carpet. It took her several seconds to realize she hadn't been hurt.
Skye stared up at Stiles in amazement, she hadn't even seen him move from his spot on the floor, but somehow he had ended up in the spot she had been standing in. Some distant part of her brain realized that he had saved her life.
Stiles made a soft noise, what started out as a gasp but then turned to wheeze, and collapsed right next to Skye on the stained carpet. Skye saw Peter's eyes flick to her, then Stiles, then Mack before he turned and tried to run away.
He managed one step before Skye regained her wits, re-aimed and pulled the trigger twice in a row.
Mack did the same.
Peter stumbled, fell, tried to rise and got shot once more, the force knocking him to the floor. He didn't try and get up again.
Skye swore and her I.C.E.R. dropped from her shaking hand. Mack moved over towards the Inhuman and made sure that he was knocked out by gently nudging him with the toe of his boot.
“He's out.” Before the words were completely out of his mouth Skye had scrambled over to Stiles and gently rolled him onto his back. She swore when she saw blood pouring from deep cuts across his chest.
“Mack!” She screamed, her hands fluttering around the wound briefly before she pressed down and tried to stop the rapid flow of blood. She shuddered at the feel of blood and what definitely felt like muscle and bone beneath her fingers.
Mack dropped down next to her and quickly tore off his bullet proof vest and then the shirt he had on underneath it. He wadded the shirt up, pulled Skye's hands away and pressed the shirt over the large wound.
“Skye, get the pod. He need's medical attention right now!” Mack ordered. Skye tried to get the beacon but her hands were shaking so bad she dropped it, twice. After the second time Mack called her back over to Stiles side. He quickly grabbed her hands in one of his and forced them to Stiles chest and the blood soaked cloth that covered the wound.
“Keep pressure on it. Just like that, perfect. Good job Skye, you're doing just fine.”
Mack quickly rose to feet, set up the beacon, and grabbed Peter by the back of the shirt and dragged him over towards Skye and away from the beacon so he wouldn't get crushed when the pod landed.
The moment the pod landed, mere seconds later, Mack quickly hauled Peter inside and dumped him on the floor before swiftly returning to Skye's side.
He slipped his hands underneath Stiles back and knees.
“Keep pressure on the wound, do not let go, we're gonna stand on the count of three, ready?” He waited for Skye's nod before he started to count.
“One, two, three.” On three he rose to his feet, as smoothly as possibly, trying not to jostle the hold that Skye had on the kid. “Okay here we go, keep a hold of him. Into the module, quick as we can.” Mack said, they turned and stepped into the pod the movements so smooth it was like they'd practiced it. Once inside Mack laid Stiles on the floor, stepped out and slammed the button on the wall that closed the doors and activated the propulsion system. He stepped back into the pod a split second before the doors slid closed.
While they were rocketing through the air, Mack caught on that someone was yelling into the comms, and from the sound of their voice had been doing so for quite a little bit.
“Were heading up to you guys now, gonna need medical assistance.” Mack barked into his comm unit.
“What the bloody hell happened down there!?” Fitz yelled angrily.
“Just make sure a med team is ready for us!” Mack ordered. A moment later his ears popped from the pressure as the pod continued to rise into the air. Mack spared the unconscious Inhuman a quick glance, checking and making sure that he was still knocked out before returning his gaze to Skye's pale face.
"You're doing great." He whispered to her as he reached over her to take the kids pulse. It was holding steady and Mack couldn't help a relieved sigh.
"Is he going to die?" Skye whispered, her arms were starting to shake because of how hard she was pressing on the kids chest.
"He'll be fine." Mack said quickly, "He'll be fine." Skye wondered if he was repeating his statement in the hope to make it true.
"Okay you guys, get ready for your landing." Mack heard over his comms right before the shadow of the plane darkened the pod briefly.
The moment the pod was inside the plane and the doors had opened enough for her to squeeze inside, Bobbi dropped down on to the floor next to them, wincing at the impact on her still healing knee.
“Okay, let's see what's going on here.” She said, flashing a quick smile at Skye and pulling her med kit a little closer so she could grab a handful of gauze out of it. A few more members of the med team squeezed into the pod and around the unconscious young man. “What happened?”
“Claws, I think, it happened so fast I didn't really see.” Mack murmured rising to his feet and stepping out of the way, knowing that he was no longer truly needed and was in fact a hindrance if the med team couldn't get to their patient.
“Okay, Skye, can you move your hands? I need to see what were dealing with here.” Skye shook her head, terrified that the moment she moved her hands the boy would bleed out.
“Alright, that's okay. Is it alright if I take over for you?” Bobbi asked, her tone gentle, as she laid her hands over Skye’s, several packs of gauze in her hand.
“Okay.”
“Alright on the count of three I want you to move your hands up and off him, alright?” Bobbi waited a second for Skye to acknowledge her, which she did by giving a quick nod before quickly counting to three. The second Skye's hands were no longer in contact with the boys she pressed her hands over Mack's t-shirt with the gauze.
“Okay, good job Skye, scoot on back so Greg there can get in here and get him started on some O2. Thanks hon, you did great.” After that she proceeded as if Skye or Mack were no longer in the pod, a quick exchange of information was given, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate were the few things that Skye recognized. Mere moments later they had Stiles loaded on a stretcher and were moving quickly out of the pod and to the planes med center.
Skye stood in the middle of the pod, watching Stiles blood drip off her shaking hands onto the floor. Her head felt fuzzy and stuffed full of cotton while her stomach roiled.
It had all happened so fast. Her fuzzy brain seemed incapable of understanding what had occurred and kept replaying the moment that Stiles had collapsed over and over again.
How had he gotten in front of Skye so quickly that he managed to take a blow that was meant for her, when not even a full second before he had been curled up on the floor, on the other side of the room?
She stared at the blood on the floor and on her hands and might have continued to stand there for eternity if Mack hadn't come up and bumped her shoulder.
“Come on...Let's get out of here before he wakes up.” He said shooting a glance at the unconscious Inhuman.
“Okay.” Skye whispered, she forced her gaze away from her blood stained hands and quickly left the pod. She didn't check and make sure that Mack had sealed the pod properly, she didn't look behind her, she barely looked in front of her as she rushed to one of the bathrooms on the the plane.
She hurriedly shut the door, turned on the water, thrust her hands into the sink and started scrubbing.
Bobbi found her there, Skye looked up when the bathroom door opened and froze when Bobbi slipped in beside her and turned off the water.
“You've been in here for over an hour now. I think your hands are clean enough.” Skye nodded and grabbed the paper towels that Bobbie handed to her to dry her hands off.
“Sorry.”
“Don't be. I did the same thing when I lost someone the first time.” Skye bit her lip and looked down at the floor, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes.
“He didn't make it?” She whispered past the lump in her throat.
“What? No oh my- Skye, I'm so sorry! He's fine! He's stable. He's going to be just fine.” Bobbi told her, wrapping her arms and around her shoulders and giving her a reassuring squeeze.
Skye felt as if a horrible weight had been lifted from her shoulders and the sick feeling in her stomach slowly started to dissipate.
"Really? He's going to be okay?" She couldn't help but ask.
“Really.” Bobbi said pulling away from the embrace. “So, did you manage to get the kid's name before he got he nearly got torn to shreds and you shot him full of dendrotoxin?” She asked her voice carrying a gently teasing tone.
“What? I shot him!?” Skye asked, her voice rising close to a shriek.
“Yes, I honestly think it might have saved his life. The sedatives in the I.C.E.R. Slowed his heart rate down enough that he didn't bleed out before getting here. He's currently getting fluids and is definitely going to need a blood transfusion but I'm sure that he'll make a full recovery.” Bobbi was quick to say.
“Oh thank God.” Skye had to lean against the wall for a second due to the dizzying wave of relief that washed over her.
“Stiles,” Skye informed Bobbi when she had recovered her equilibrium. “The Inhuman called him Stiles.”